Janda graduated with her Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Psychology from the Oregon Institute of Technology in 2007 and her Master of Arts in Counseling from Corban University in 2013. A year after completing her Bachelor’s degree, she worked at the Children’s Farm Home in Corvallis, Oregon, as a Children and Adolescent Treatment Specialist (CATS) with children and adolescents who struggled with mental, emotional, and behavioral problems. Her duties included: maintaining a safe living and working environment for clients and staff, teaching and modeling appropriate behavior, acting as a listening ear for the clients, leading groups, administering medications, and participating as a member of an interdisciplinary treatment team. In addition, while in the Master’s program at Corban University, she completed a full year of internship at the Pastoral Counseling Center of Corvallis, Oregon, working with a variety of ages ranging from children to elderly adults. She opened Empowering Choices Counseling & Consultation’s Philomath office in September 2019.
Janda’s counseling philosophy uses a person-centered, attachment, and developmental approach to therapy. She believes that human beings are designed to have attachments with one another and that good attachments foster well-being. By integrating counseling with development, she believes she can begin to understand her client’s unique way of knowing the world and making meaning of their life experiences. She believes people are resourceful, capable of self-understanding, and can make the changes they desire. By building a relationship based on congruence, unconditional positive regard, and empathetic understanding, she believes she can create an environment where her clients can work towards growth and change. Janda has experience working with children, adolescents, young adults, adults, and elderly adults. Areas Janda works with include anxiety, depression, bereavement, childhood traumas, and relational issues.